Curiosity Mocked the Lion
by KristenJ350
Summary: Following House's encounter with Cameron in The Right Stuff! What could have happened were House to stop Cameron from walking away from him and play some more! Good times to come!
1. Curious

Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"_Why'd you rat your patient out to NASA?" Cameron asked curious about House's recent actions._

"_Well, I don't know who's been gossiping about ethics instead of sex but I hope they've already been fired. Which number was it?_

"_Greta," Cameron replied._

"_Number!"_

"_No number; the patient! How do you think she got your pager number? She came into the ER, didn't want to talk."_

"_I didn't rat her out."_

"_You lied?_

"_I suppose I should tell her that before she keys my car."_

"_Why lie?" _

"_I had to stop some leaky faucets."_

"_What did it matter?"_

"_It was no one's business."_

"_Right," Cameron replied._

"_She's going to be the safest astronaut up there. Certainly more vigilant then the guy next to her who's got no clue about the aneurism in his head ready to pop," House stated confidently._

"_Right," Cameron said in disbelief then turning and she slowly walked away._

"_You've got a better reason?" Cameron turned back around in response. _

"_You couldn't kill her dream," Cameron said swiftly turning around and walking back towards her patient. House watches her walk away for a few moments._

"Cameron," House called to her as she walked away slowly hobbling after her. "So, what if I didn't want to kill her dream? What does that matter?"

"It matters because it tells me something… something about you," Cameron replied slightly curious about his approach. It seemed to Cameron, to be something he wouldn't want to continue a discussion about.

House tilted his head and said, "What does it tell you about me?"

"Why are you curious as to what your actions tell me?"

"Oh, you know me. I've been called a lion in bed," he said while waggling his eyebrows. "A lion's a form of cat. Just take that analogy and roll with it."

"If you were a cat you'd have died long ago," Cameron scoffed and crossed her arms. "It's interesting though; your curiosity I mean. What does my assessment of you matter? You could careless what people think of you. Why now?"

"I've changed!"

"No, you haven't!"

"No, I haven't," he promptly replied, "But…" he looked down while fiddling with his cane, "… you have always been able to read me well. You seem to understand me better then I understand myself. Sometimes I do things for reasons I can't figure out. Sometimes, I feel things… that I'm not used to feeling." House returned his gaze to Cameron's.

Cameron smiled, looked down at her watch and then back up into Houses gaze. "I'm off in five minutes. Come on," she said. She approached House as though to pass him and reached out and rubbed his left forearm with her left hand. "Let's go get food and I'll explain yourself to you." She then released his forearm and walked out of the ER towards the Doctor's lounge. House slowly turned, a smile briefly escaping his lips and within seconds he found himself following her towards the lounge.


	2. Locker Room Show

Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

He walked into the lounge seeing Cameron cross it and head straight for the locker room. He followed after her, stopping at the door of the locker room and leaning in as she gathered her things from her locker.

"So, where are we going?" he asked curiously.

"Nowhere unless you let me change out of my scrubs," she replied.

"Don't mind me, I'll just be right over here," he said letting the door close, he then walked over to a bench, pointing to a spot on it, and sitting down still facing her.

"Yeah, well, as long as _you're_ comfortable," she said while pulling her top off and tucking it into her bag. She then pulled out a shirt from her locker and put it on. The shirt was a v-cut, short sleeve shirt that actually showed some cleavage.

House just watched in awe. That was not a move he was expecting from Cameron. "So, Japanese sound good?" he asked trying to sound calm; his voice only faltering ever so slightly. She then toed her tennis shoes off and pulled her scrub pants off.

"Sure, I'm a wasabi woman," she said while rummaging through her locker looking for her pants. "There they are," all the time House is staring at her back end, only barely covered by her bikini underwear.

"Definitely woman," he replied as she turned around and started to put her jeans on.

"Glad you noticed," she said chuckling.

"Real are so much better then fake," he said bringing his attention back up to her chest, he then looked up and winked at her. "I think Cuddy's are fake."

She then grabbed her tennis shoes, shoved them in her locker, reached in and pulled out her comfy skater shoes; a pair of Vans she tends to wear to and from work, now that scrubs are a daily routine.

"Well, as much as I'd love to discuss Cuddy's rack with you I'd rather eat. Let's get going," she said locking up from her locker. She then grabbed her bag and started walking towards the locker room door.

"W-w-wait," House said jumping, sort of, to his feet and hobbling over to her. She turned around as she heard him approach. He took his left hand and placed it on her right shoulder. He was mere inches way from her. Her breath hitched as he moved his hand slowly towards her neck. She looked up into his eyes. "Tag!" he said quietly returning her gaze.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Your tag," he said as he moved his hand to the back of her neck and tucked her tag under her shirt, letting his fingers lightly graze her neck.

"Oh, thanks," she replied as he lifted his hand from her.

"Yeah, yeah, what are old bosses for?"

"Colleague!"

"Huh?"

"You're my colleague now! You don't have to think of yourself as being my 'old boss' anymore! I'm a colleague and, possibly, if you're willing, I could be considered a friend too," she said with a smile.

"I don't know if Wilson will share me. If I called you a friend it'd be like I'm cheating on him with a much younger, hotter, woman who won't rat me out! Wait, what am I complaining about? I just gave myself four good reasons to cheat away! Let's go while I'm still thinking about food," he said motioning towards the door.

She walked out of the locker room closely followed by House. _This will be interesting,_ they both thought to themselves.


	3. Saki Bomb

Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

They arrived at the local Japanese restaurant about fifteen minutes after having left the parking lot of PPTH. They decided to just take one car to save gas. House won the "battle of the driver" since Cameron just gave up. She didn't really care if she drove or not anyways.

At the restaurant House and Cameron were the first to be seated at their Teppanyaki Grill waiting for the rest of the grill to be filled with people! They were seated on the side with House next to the corner of the grill and Cameron to his right. She was looking at her menu when she decided to speak up.

"So, you want me to explain yourself to you? What exactly do you want to know?" she asked placing her menu down above her plate.

"Well, can't we at least get to eating dinner before I slice open my soul and hand it over to you?"

"_You_ have a soul?" she said mockingly.

"Hey, I resemble that remark," he replied feigning hurt. Cameron laughed in response.

"Resemble it? Yes, yes you do. Yeah, we can talk about it after we eat if you'd prefer," she said relenting. At this time the waitress came by to take their drink orders.

"What would you like to drink?" asked the waitress.

"Diet coke with lemon," said Cameron.

"Nah uh. No you don't," he said to Cameron. "You'll at least get something a little more fun while I'm here." He looked over at the waitress and said, "Two Saki Bombs, for now!" He looked over at Cameron and she gave him 'the eye.' He then turned back to the waitress and said as though conceding, "And two diet Coke's with lemon as well; One of each for the two of us."

A group of four people, at this point, then joined them at the grill. There was a younger couple holding hands, an older woman, in her sixties and a young kid that appeared to be about ten. The kid sat next to House, in the corner while the rest lined up down the grill.

House and Cameron continued their conversation unmoved by the new company. "Thank you, House," she said with a smile. "What's a Saki Bomb? I've never had one!"

"Oh, you'll see!" he said with a maniacal smile on his face.

"Oh God, I haven't seen that look on your face before. I don't think that's good news for me," she said half laughing yet still concerned.

"You can call me House at the Hospital and you can call me Greg while we're outside the Hospital but I'm only called God in the bedroom! I know I'm 'God like' in other ways too but I don't want it to get to my head." Cameron placed her head in her hands and shook her head in response.

"I can't take you anywhere, Greg… now can I?"

"I just need a sign that says, 'Make friends with me at your own risk' and that way it's out of my hands."

"I think the positives may, _may_ outweigh the negatives but I'll just have to wait and find out. I haven't taken the beast out in public very much so I'll have to see if I can control him," she said with a smile.

"Control this beast? I think not! No one can whip me; no one I say!" he said dramatically.

"We'll see," was all Cameron said in response.

After a few moments of silence between them, she decided to attempt to keep a conversation going. "So what's your favorite item here?"

"Ahhh, small talk? Come on?" he said whiningly.

"Well, I don't want to just sit here and twiddle my thumbs," she said exasperated from his lack of a desire to socialize with her.

"Okay, simma down; I'll talk! Let's see, my favorite item here is the lobster and filet meal but with the Dynamite in close second. I don't think I'd have room for the Dynamite today though. I plan to supplement my meal with plenty of Saki Bombs. How about you? Have you been here before?"

"Actually, I haven't been to a Japanese restaurant since I was maybe twenty-two. It's been a while but I usually stick with the chicken. My favorite part of the meal at a Japanese restaurant though is the salad before the main course. I just love the dressing they put on the salad."

"Ahh, that is so lame. You love the salad?" he said as he looked up at the waitress approaching them with their drinks. "Ah, and the fun begins!" Cameron then looked over as the waitress set their drinks down.

"What can I get you to eat?" the waitress asked.

"I'll take the lobster and filet mignon," stated House.

"I'll go with the chicken and scallops," Cameron added. The waitress then took the orders of the rest of their table.

"So what is all this?" asked Cameron.

"This is your beer," stated House pointing towards the large glass of amber liquid. "And this is your saki," he said holding up the shot glass. "What we're going to do is place these chop sticks on the glass of beer. Place the chop sticks with enough distance apart to stably place the shot of saki on top." As he spoke he demonstrated by placing the chop sticks on the glass and showing where the shot would go but refraining from placing the shot on the chop sticks.

"Okay, like this," Cameron said while placing the chop sticks on her glass of beer and slowly attempting to place her shot on the chop sticks.

"Looks good," he said while looking at Cameron as he stated this and not once glancing at her drink. "When we're ready we're going to slam our hands on the table near the drink and when we do that, the shot of saki will fall into the beer and when that happens we chug. Technically you're supposed to use your head and not your hands but I'd rather not injure the ol' cabeza. It's a race to see who can finish first. Loser pays?!"

"Hmmmm, how about we do a test run and see how that goes and then on our second run we'll have the actual competition?"

"O'ooo, I'm glad you're planning on having more then one. You're turning out to be a fun date!" he said quickly regretting his words; cringing inside. '_This is not a date,' _he thought to himself.

Cameron just ignored his comment and said, "Okay, let's try this."

"Alright, on the count of three" he stated placing his shot on the chop sticks. "Oh, and be careful the shot glass doesn't go slamming into your teeth as you chug your Saki Bomb. You wouldn't want to ruin that gorgeous smile of yours." Cameron blushed slightly at his comment.

"Oh, yeah, I didn't think of that. I'll try to be careful. Thanks!"

The other people at their table turned to watch as he started a count down.

"One," he said placing his hands on either side of the drink; Cameron following his lead.

"Two," he raised his hands to about the height of the glass of beer as did Cameron.

"Three," the both slammed their hands down on the table next to their drinks causing their shot to fall into their beer. Quickly they both grabbed their drink and started to chug. House had a good lead on Cameron. The boy next to House chuckled in response to their race. After House finished the last of his drink, he slammed the glass back down on the table and looked over at Cameron who was maybe three quarters of the way done. "Ha, you'll have to be quicker then that to win. This was a good practice round though." She finished and placed her glass down.

"Wow, that was… wow!" was all she seemed capable of saying.

"Good, huh? Here comes the waitress with our soups! I'll order us our second round!"

The waitress placed their soups in front of them and House quickly ordered their second round of Saki Bombs.

"I'm so going to be wasted if I do too many of those. I'm already starting to feel it," she stated. "What will we do if we get farshikkert?" House was intrigued by her use of Yiddish.

"Eh, we'll call a cab. Wilson's got nothing better to do anyways," House stated with a smile.


End file.
